Four Mid-American Conference teams begin their seasons Friday. Three of those come from the West Division. Buffalo is the only East Division member to kick things off Friday. Here is a peek at the Bulls’s matchup.

● It’s the 13th meeting of the two schools, with Albany holding a 7-5 advantage. Buffalo defeated Albany 51-14 in last year’s opener. UB is 8-2 in its last 10 home openers.(CLICK READ MORE TO CONTINUE . . . )

Presbyterian (0-0) at Central Michigan (0-0)Thursday, Sept. 1, 7 p.m. ETKelly Shorts Stadium, Mt. Pleasant, Mich.WEATHERCentral Michigan and Presbyterian College are meeting on the gridiron for the first time. However, kicking off the season against MAC schools has become something of a habit lately for PC. The Blue Hose have now opened against FBS teams on the road for the past four years, with the most recent three being against MAC schools (Miami, NIU, CMU). Overall, PC is 0-11 versus FBS competition.

Broncos, Falcons garner very slight edgeCleveland, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference (MAC) head football coaches have provided their own 2016 preseason poll and, based upon voting by all 12 head coaches, Bowling Green and Western Michigan have been selected to win the East and West Divisions respectfully.In the East Division a narrow margin of only two points separated first-place and second-place. Bowling Green was selected first with 66 total points followed by second-place Ohio with 64 points. Akron was selected third followed by Buffalo, Miami and Kent State.In the West Division, only two points separated the top three spots with Western Michigan gathering 60 points, followed by second-place NIU with 59 points and third-place Toledo with 58 points.The voting reflects on . . .

Considering its recent history, a Northern Illinois trip to the 2015 MAC Championship game wasn’t all that unlikely. Considering the path it took to get there, however, the Huskies might have been considered very unlikely.​There was bad luck and good, but ultimately, NIU gritted its way to Ford’s Field once again. Injuries accounted for the bad luck. A traffic jam of good teams atop the MAC West ended up being good luck as Northern Illinois beat out three other foes in a tiebreaker.

Injuries stymied the Huskies in a championship game setback and didn’t help in a bowl game blowout loss.

Akron’s defense played a key role in getting the Zips to a bowl game (which UA won) last year. UA was second in scoring defense and first in total defense. Another huge plus, especially for a team that sometimes struggled with scoring, was turnover margin. Only Bowling Green had a better margin.Speaking of turnovers, the defending MAC champion Falcons had some significant personnel turnover between seasons. Akron is , , ,

When you have the lowest scoring offense among FBS teams, you better have a really good defense.

That kind of summarizes much of the 2015 Kent State Golden Flashes and may speak some of 2016, as well. Seventeen starters (9 offense and 8 defense) return off a team that won three games overall and two MAC encounters. One of the wins was over a team (UMass) no longer in the conference. The other was over one of college football’s youngest teams (Miami) entering its third year of a rebuild.​The Flashes scored . . .

The following is part of a MAC Reporter Online series previewing the 2016 outlook for each MAC school. Stats are for all games, unless otherwise noted.​TEAM: Toledo Rockets2015 RECORD: 10-2, 6-2 MAC (part of four-way tie for first in the West)HEAD COACH: Jason Candle (1st year)MAC MEDIA PRESEASON POLL RANK: 2nd in MAC WestThe Toledo Rockets appeared in five of the first eight Mid-American Conference championship games. The last, however, was in 2004, when UT bumped off Miami, 35-27.

No doubt there has been a stream of talent going through the program. Likewise, there have been some pretty good head coaches along the way (e.g. Nick Saban in 1990). In fact, the Rockets are now on their fourth head coach in nine years – not because of bad football, but because of good football.​The latest HC is Jason Candle, who replaces Matt Campbell (now at Iowa State). Once again, there is plenty of talent on hand, and . . .

Ohio started and finished 2015 with three-game winning streaks. It was that middle stretch – when the Bobcats went 2-4 – that proved problematic. The stretch included several lopsided loses, but OU regrouped to finish strong.

The 2015 Bowling Green Falcons were an offensive juggernaut -- a whirlwind passing attack that could also hurt you with the run , as well. Quarterback Matt Johnson made the most of his senior season, finishing among the nation’s passing leaders and taking his team to a MAC championship.Surrendering nearly 29 ppg didn’t seem so bad when BG was averaging over 42 points per game on offense. However, Georgia Southern reversed roles with Bowling Green in the GoDaddy Bowl with a 58-27 win over the Falcons.There will be considerable turnover in many spots this year. Adding that to . . . .

Publisher﻿

Mike Smith saw his first MAC footb﻿a﻿ll action as a nine-year-old while hanging onto the flagpole of a nearby baseball stadium. The view got better after he discovered he could get in free at halftime. Decades later, he can usually be found either on press row or along the sidelines.Mike has won awards for both his stories and pictures during his time in journalism. Combining his own skills with those of other writers and photographers, along with conference and school resources, he constantly works to provide an enjoyable MAC product.

ATTENTION WRITERS!MAC Reporter Online is seeking contributors for coverage at a number of Mid-American Conference schools.Several “levels” of participation are available for writers or photographers. For further information, contact Mike at: mro24mike@gmail.com.